Cultivating Collaboration: Online and In-Person meetings with Political Youth Network Members and Prospective Member Organizations

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Prior to the regional PYN conference, the secretariat announced the annual assembly to the membership via email and arranged meetings with representatives from Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Slovenia. The purpose of these meetings was to renew contacts with the representatives of political youth organizations from the mentioned countries and discuss the expansion of membership in Albania, North Macedonia, and Slovenia.

The meeting with the international secretary of youth organization Mladi Forum, the only member organization from Slovenia, was very constructive. After the meeting a young delegate was assigned to come to the PYN assembly and via email he shared with the PNY secretariat the contacts of other active political youth organizations from Slovenia, with whom the secretariat later established contact. 

The Slovenian political youth organization that expressed interest in an online meeting was the Freedom Movement. The meeting presented the work of PYN, and it was agreed that a young delegate would be sent to this year’s assembly to convey their impressions about PYN to the presidency. Afterwards, the Freedom Movement would decide on applying for membership in PYN until the next annual assembly.

To gather information on current events in Kosovo and political youth organizations in Albania, an online meeting was held with an active delegate from the Kosovo political youth organization of Self-determination Movement, who participated in last year’s assembly in Zagreb and announced her attendance in Belgrade this year.

An online meeting was arranged with the only member organization from North Macedonia, the political youth organization MODOM. However, the meeting did not take place due to the unavailability of the president of the youth organization. 

The president of the youth organization of the political party Democrats from North Macedonia contacted the secretariat via email, expressing interest in joining the PYN. An online meeting was held with him, during which it was agreed that they would apply for membership in the network and that he personally would attend the assembly. The meeting also discussed other existing youth organizations in North Macedonia, and the PYN coordinator afterwards successfully established contact with another political youth organization from North Macedonia, the Liberal Democratic Party. It was agreed during the online meeting that this organization would also apply for membership in PYN and send their young delegate to present their work at the assembly.

In addition to the meetings with youth organizations from neighboring countries, an online meeting was held with the political youth organization Istrian Democratic Youth, which operates regionally in Istria, Croatia. The president, vice-presidents, and international secretary of the organization attended the meeting and subsequently informed the PYN secretary that they would apply for membership. Due to the inability of someone from the organization to physically attend the assembly as a delegate, it was later agreed that the international secretary would join the assembly via Zoom.

Meetings were held in person with representatives of two political youth organizations operating in Zagreb. The president of the youth organization of the party Glas and the coordinators of the youth working group from the party Možemo! expressed interest in joining PYN. However, they concluded that it would be better to first consolidate the membership of the youth organization, and internally strengthen it in the case of Glas, and in the case of Možemo!, to first strive to officially establish the youth organization by the end of this year and then apply for the membership in PYN.

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